


Story Time

by chiaroscuroverse



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alcohol, Dancing, F/M, Fluff, Sharing a Bed, Team TARDIS, Western
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-12
Updated: 2016-09-12
Packaged: 2018-08-14 16:42:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8021338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chiaroscuroverse/pseuds/chiaroscuroverse
Summary: For @timepetalsprompts ficlet prompt: Story Time Sometimes they take a trip and everything goes right. Fluffy fluff with dancing, bedsharing, and Jack. This prompt was perfect to flesh out a reference in another fic I’ve been working on for ages, so call it a prequel. It is a vaguely Firefly-esque planet, but might have more to do with Back to the Future III being on the other day. ;)





	Story Time

It was a fantastic day. A day that some years later, under a different sky, she would spend sleepless nights recreating. Recreating in painstaking detail, from the way the Doctor’s jacket looked when coated lightly with reddish dust, to the way Jack walked in spurs, to the way her face lightly ached from smiling by the time she was falling asleep.

“Yuma Tertius!” The Doctor announced, pleased as punch, as he, Rose, and Jack stepped out of the TARDIS onto a flat, sunny field bursting with space ships of varying levels of shine and repair. Actual horse-drawn wagons ferried passengers to the Old West-looking town they could see in the distance, and the Doctor hustled them onto one.

“So how come it looks so much like the old movies my gran was always watchin’? S’it a tourist thing?” Rose asked, using the Doctor’s hand as an anchor to lean almost all the way out of the wagon and glimpse the approaching buildings. 

“Nope, actual colonists in newly terraformed planets. Behold the power of Hollywood! Natural template for rural settlements, they thought.”

Jack was thrilled-–all day long. He picked up chaps and spurs and a ridiculous white ten-gallon hat at the mercantile, and his swagger got so strong Rose told him he was bound to fall into a watering trough by the day’s end. But she bought clothes too, a dress with petticoats, and they modeled for the Doctor, who lounged with exaggerated sighs in a wide chair, head resting on thumb and forefinger. He might have fooled her months ago, but now she could see the ever-so-slight quirk at the corner of his mouth.

“And for you, good sir!” Jack took a bow and presented a hatbox. Rose pulled off the lid with a flourish, revealing a black cowboy hat.

The Doctor gave them each a blasé smile and said, “No,” with a little shake of his head.

“Ha, told you!” Rose said to Jack, “Pay up later.”

Jack muttered, “Keeping it anyway.”

She twirled her parasol at the Doctor. “Come on, then, let’s go get your whatsit!”

The whatsit was a tiny metal bit for a repair he’d decided would be perfect if forged by an old-timey blacksmith. But when he pulled out drawings and got into an involved discussion at the smithy, Rose and Jack decided to skedaddle. They took a turn around the square playing cowboy and lady, and stopped off to take a room at the saloon—for the full experience.

They picked up the Doctor and went to scope out the jail (another bet: would they be in it before the night was done?) when Rose noticed no one was batting an eye at the three of them walking around together. She delightedly tucked a hand into both of their arms. Exoplanets had some distinct advantages over the real Old West.

Back at the saloon, they ate a delicious dinner, and Jack decided to get the party started by taking over the dusty, somewhat out-of-tune piano in the corner. At first she watched the crowd, not sure if any of the rough-looking blokes would take issue with him, but they turned out to be the first to join as he led the whole saloon in a few classics. 

Later a few folks turned up with fiddles and took over, playing the local music, which sounded vaguely Scottish to Rose’s ears. Tables got shoved out of the center to make room for a reel, and Rose dashed out to join Jack. 

She was just tipsy enough to be floating on laughter, music, and the Doctor’s smile as he watched her from the far side of the table. After a couple songs she flopped into the chair and fanned her face. The Doctor handed her a hanky to dab at her forehead, and she took several large gulps of water from the pitcher at the center of their table.

Jack appeared with three more mugs of ale. “A special one for you, Doc!” He winked at Rose.

The Doctor raised a skeptical brow and tasted. “Clever lad.”

Jack grinned harder. The Doctor leaned back in his chair and took a long look around the saloon. The front doors were wide open near them, letting in cooler night air. Oil lamps ringed the walls, casting everyone in warm firelight. Fiddles played and the stomp of the dance went on. Finally he looked back at Jack. “Bottoms up!”

Jack whooped while Rose pulled on his arm. “What? What is it?”

“Ginger! Actually has an effect on Time Lords. Or so I’ve heard.”

The Doctor drank it down and slammed the mug. “You’ll be sorry if there’s trouble, the pair of you, getting me off my wits.”

“Oh, this is too good!” Rose exclaimed. “How long before you’ll dance with me?”

He narrowed his eyes, then stood and dipped to circle an arm behind her back and pull her out of her chair, almost roughly. She shrieked with laughter, while Jack dropped into the Doctor’s spot, rosy-cheeked and smug.

And they danced. How many songs, she never could remember, because it all collapsed into a vision of his face in front of her, his eyes when she spun and caught them again. Jack sometimes joined them, sometimes drank a few blokes under the table. 

When it was late enough that drunk people were getting pushed out the door, the Doctor and Rose were swaying to a mournful solo violin. She raised her cheek from his leather lapel to beam at him. “Looks like there was no trouble. I know, I hardly believe it myself.”

“Better watch your tongue. Not out of here yet, us. Though looks like we’d better get him to bed.” He jerked his head at Jack, who sat with chin in hand, smiling wanly at passing cowboys while his eyes drooped.

Rose went to haul Jack up and the Doctor followed, starting to yawn himself before abruptly forcing it away. “Ha! I saw that, Mr. Time Lords Don’t Yawn!”

“It’s the ginger!” protested the Doctor.

“You’re not gonna get out of sleeping this time,” she warned him. He looked about to argue, so she continued, “Don’t worry, I’ll sleep with him and you can have the other bed all to yourself.”

His lips curled down for moment, but all he said was, “Fine,” and grabbed Jack’s other arm to steer him toward the stairs, while Jack called out goodbyes to the room.

“Earlier he was all ‘Don’t wait up for me! Probably won’t even be in here tonight.’ And now look at ya!” Rose said as she patted Jack’s cheek affectionately. “Couldn’t make a single pull in this town?”

“Naw, plenty of offers. Just wanted to stay with you guys.”

“Mmm hmm.” She opened the door to their room, which consisted of a single and a double bed, a folding screen, and a wash basin. The colonists couldn’t forget everything they knew about modernity—they had a loo with plumbing at the end of the hall. She planned to make a run for it as soon as she could get out of her dress.

But first they helped Jack get out of his vest and other duds, until he was down to undershirt and shorts. “I’ve dreamt of this moment for so long,” he said to Rose’s shoulder.

Rose chuckled. “An’ I’ve dreamt of the moment I collect on my bet, but something tells me it’s not happenin’.”

“Magic fingers, Rosie.” Jack wiggled his hands in front of his face, which seemed to make him a little dizzy.

The Doctor looked up from where he was scanning the beds with the sonic. “Magic fingers?”

“Oh, that’s what I won for being so sure you wouldn’t put on the cowboy hat.” She winked at him. “A neck massage. Could use it after tonight, but I think he’s pretty useless.” She gave Jack a push and he flopped onto the double bed.

“Do my buttons?” she asked, presenting her back to the Doctor and lifting her hair. “’M ready to be back in stretchy clothes!”

He hesitated for a long enough moment that she looked around at him. He seemed a little dazed, but snapped to and grabbed the top button.

“You’re movin’ slow too. Definitely need some sleep. See, I’ve been around long enough I can tell.” She nodded confidently.

“Can you now?”

“You’re pretty tough. But not invincible.”

His fingers brushed her back as he opened button after button. She suppressed a shiver. Jack piped up, “I’m very fast at buttons.”

“That won’t be necessary, ta,” the Doctor called out, then lower, to Rose, “Well, you’re right. Far from invincible, me.” He paused, hands at her waist after the last one, then patted and gave her a light push. “Off you go.”

“My clothes please!”

“Ah.” He dug deeply into one coat pocket and pulled out a band t-shirt and a pair of knit shorts.

“See, who needs luggage when I’ve got you! My little pouch in there too?” She went behind the screen and pushed off the dress with a groan. “My feet are going to ache! I kinda like these cool old shoes, though.”

After a quick trip down the hall, she found the Doctor lying flat in the middle of his bed, fully dressed. Jack rambled about another westernish planet he’d been to for the Time Agency.

Rose flopped next to Jack with a happy sigh. “Lucky for you I don’t wanna collect a massage from a drunk person.” Jack giggled and she patted his arm. “How come you’re not asleep yet?”

“Good question!” He kissed her head then rolled over. “G’night. Feel free to snuggle me!”

“You just stay on your own side.”

He sat up and looked back at them. “Hey, guys? This was a really nice day. Thanks, Doc.”

“Don’t mention it,” said the Doctor. He put his hands behind his head and smiled up at the ceiling.

Rose turned down the gas lamp on the table between them and took a minute to adjust to the moonlight that streamed in through the windows. She still could feel herself spinning in the dance. Her face was damp where she’d splashed it, and her legs and feet ached pleasantly. She thought the Doctor was already asleep when he spoke.

“Does your neck hurt? Why don’t you let me take care of it?”

“Oh, not really. I was just windin’ him up.”

She heard his jacket move and pictured him shrugging.

“You not sleepy yet either? Tell me a story.”

“Mmm. So many choices. What kind of story?”

“I dunno, something from a long time ago. From your…childhood maybe?” That was pushing it. “Or not. Anythin’ you want, really.”

He was quiet again, long enough she considered apologizing before he spoke. “Ian and Barbara. First humans I ever traveled with.”

Her heart stuttered. Actual details about his past, before the war, seemed an intimacy she hadn't really expected him to offer. She took a deep breath as quietly as she could and replied casually, “Oh? Where were they from?”

“London, of course. Guess I took a shine to the place. The 1960s.”

They were interrupted by a loud snore from Jack and both burst out laughing. Rose decided to make a move and rolled out of her bed.

“All right, I’m comin’ over so I can hear you.” She could see him clearly now in the moonlight, eyes shining up at her. “Ok, first of all, at least take your coat and boots off and let’s pull these covers down. Don’t Time Lords know how to go to bed?” She tossed the pillow from her own bed onto his head. He shook it off and stood up.

“Yes, ma’am.” He carefully laid his jacket across the foot of the bed while she pulled down the sheet and arranged pillows. He got back in, barefoot, but still in his maroon jumper and trousers. Rose lay carefully–a little too close to the edge–while they got settled, face to face. Jack continued to snore.

“Ok, what were you saying about Ian and…who was it?”

“Barbara. How is it that he’s got the big bed to himself and we’re cramped into this one?”

Rose smiled and lightly bit her tongue. “You’re welcome to carry him over.”

“Eh. So, yes, Ian and Barbara were teachers. I sor’of…kidnapped them with the TARDIS.”

“What? No!”

“Let’s just say I had a lot to learn about human culture and customs.”

“Were they a couple?”

“Eventually.”

“So first ones. That’d be a long time ago, huh? Hundreds of years?” He nodded. “I’m trying to picture what you looked like young.” She had almost called up an image of the Doctor looking like her own age—

“Don’t strain yourself. Anyway, we ended up landing among the Aztecs.” He told her about Barbara putting on a bracelet and being assumed to be a goddess, Barbara trying to change history, and the fight where he inadvertently almost got Ian killed.

“Makes me feel a little better to know I’m not the first one who ever tried to change history.”

“Oh, Rose.” The Doctor swiped a lock of hair away from her eyes. “Course you weren’t. I’m the one who should’ve known better. Known humans for hundreds of years now, me. You go on instincts, wanna make things better. Guess I just got fuzzy on some things.”

She smiled at him. Her eyes fluttered closed a little, but she wasn't ready to give this up. “Tell me more.”

“You look pretty sleepy. Next time. I’ll tell you all about how the four of us sorted it and I accidentally got engaged to a local woman.”

“What? Only engaged, not married?” she teased. “Some things really do never change, do they?”

He laughed and pulled her into a hug. “You know what, I’m glad you’re here right now, you and Jack. Didn’t think I’d have this again, for a while there.”

She shamelessly snuggled her face into the vee of his jumper. “Me too. I want us all to be here, just like this, for—.”

“Hush now.” He pulled her tightly into his chest, muffling her words, before releasing her. “Remind me to kill Jack tomorrow for giving me ginger beer and getting me all soppy.”

“’M gonna stock up the TARDIS fridge.” His chest rumbled with laughter and she thought her heart might burst.

“All right, might as well get comfy if you’re gonna stick with me in this tiny spot.”

She rolled over and scooted to spoon into him, tucking just enough of her pillow under her head. “Ahhh, perfect. You’ll keep me just the right temperature.”

“Glad I’m good for something.”

“Jack’s gonna be so jealous when he wakes up.”

“Good.”

She closed her eyes and drifted in the soft cocoon of his body, nearly asleep, until something struck her. “Doctor? Who was the fourth?”

“Mm?”

“You said there were four of you.”

He squeezed her lightly, then began to stroke her hair. “Go to sleep, Rose.”

**************

She woke to the sound of Jack’s voice. “Unbelievable.”

The Doctor wore the cowboy hat back to the TARDIS.


End file.
